“Consistent From Day 1”
December 11th, 2016
The Bucs’ elder statesman speaks out
It’s possible the Bucs defense has made the greatest midseason turnaround in the history of the NFL.
There’s no official stat on that, but just look at the reality.
The Bucs went from league slappy, getting mauled by Case Keenum and the hapless Rams, to league super-slappy, hammered by the Raiders and Falcons for a combined 1,000 yards.
Since then, it’s been lights out by the defense through Tampa Bay’s five-game winning streak.
The party marched on today. Drew Brees was 25-for-41 through the air, just a 61 percent completion percentage, wayyyy below his average and also under the NFL average completion percentage. Brees and his No. 1-ranked NFL offense was neutered.
Joe had 1-on-1 time after the game with starting linebacker Daryl Smith. A veteran of 182 starts, Smith has seen it all, and he played for years under Mike Smith in Jacksonville.
Joe asked Daryl Smith what’s been the key to this historic defensive turnaround, and Smith pointed to the defensive staff.
“I know a lot of this stuff is cliché, man. But the truth is the truth,” Smith said. “Early in the season when things didn’t go so right, they’ve just been consistent since Day 1. Just constantly finding where we were breaking down whether it was training camp or in September. Just being consistent every day and breaking it down for us to get better daily and striving each day to push hard. I can’t say enough about the strength of the coaching staff.”
Of course, that defensive staff is headed by Mike Smith.
Joe’s sure going to miss Smith when he’s a head coach somewhere else next year. Joe’s not going to pretend otherwise.
December 11th, 2016 at 9:27 pm
If Smith leaves I hope we can’t retain most of the assistant coaches. Smith did in half season what Lovie couldn’t do in 2 seasons, simple as that.
December 11th, 2016 at 9:27 pm
Unbelievable turnaround. I can’t believe this is the same D. Tandy is playing great!
December 11th, 2016 at 9:31 pm
I realllly hope he sticks around next year. He’s worked wonders with our Defense. Imagine what he could do with more talent?
December 11th, 2016 at 9:31 pm
Ever since Hey Jude has been out the secondary has been better. Coincidence or not ? Honestly, I don’t see what the coaches see in him TBH…
December 11th, 2016 at 9:33 pm
Whether or not Smith leaves depends on what jobs come open. I am afraid the Jaguars hire him as HC since he was the DC the last time the Jaguars were good.
A little dose of Mike Smith would do Jacksonville some good. To this day I don’t see why the Falcons fired him.
December 11th, 2016 at 9:40 pm
Artemis Rand…we we’re told by many on here that his defenses in Atlanta always sucked and that’s why he got fired.
December 11th, 2016 at 9:42 pm
And Joe…you pretend all you want. It sucks, so I’m not going to do that right now and pretend somewhere down the line.
December 11th, 2016 at 10:06 pm
Maybe Dirk, who had known him for years, can convince him to give him one more year to win the whole damn thing. We are a couple vets, two good rooks and some impact playmakers away from being able to win the whole damn thing
December 11th, 2016 at 10:12 pm
Regarding Mike Smith going to the Jags: Living in NE Florida and listening to the depressing sports talk radio here, I get the impression that the Jags want to hire an offensive minded coach, like Josh McDaniels or Kyle Shanahan. The Jags GM might be gone, too, so all bets are off.
December 11th, 2016 at 10:18 pm
The bucs need to convince mike to stay. With a bag if cash and a shiny new office with “co-head coach” on the door. Or something. Whatever it takes, we need to retain him.
December 11th, 2016 at 10:38 pm
Pay the man head coaching money to stay. 5 million should get the job done. No stress. That’s less then we’re paying Verner to sit on the bench.
December 11th, 2016 at 10:42 pm
LOL ^^
December 11th, 2016 at 11:46 pm
Hey Joe…….Where’s the TANDY POST !!!!!!!!!!
December 11th, 2016 at 11:47 pm
In a perfect world, Smith would ask himself, do I wanna go be the HC for a dumpster fire, or get a ring here in Tampa?
December 12th, 2016 at 1:13 am
Bucs Ace…..I second that! Tandy deserves the game ball tonight. No it’s never a good thing when your safety gets 10 tackles but when that coincides with a win, it’s hard to complain. He was all over the place tonight and with two pass deflections and the game sealing INT he might’ve just held on the the starting job, regardless of when Conte comes back.
December 12th, 2016 at 12:09 pm
“Artemis Rand…we we’re told by many on here that his defenses in Atlanta always sucked and that’s why he got fired.”
Yep. I was in here writing up all the stats to show that Atlanta’s defense was actually pretty damn good outside his final 2 years; when they had pretty much no talent at all and had switched to a new d coordinator.
When Atlanta made the Julio Jones trade i thought they were screwing their overall team because they lost so much draft capital and it’s not like they were stacked with talent everywhere. None of the mid round players they got from that 2011 draft and following 2012 draft did much.
Julio Jones was the only cornerstone player they really got out of a couple years of drafts. Fast forward to today and you can see there is a good core of drafted players that Dan Quinn has to work with (Trufant/Alford/Freeman/Coleman/Jake Mathews/Vic Beasley/Keanu Neal/ Deion Jones)
That’s almost half the starters
If Atlanta just stuck with Smith I’m sure he’d be doing pretty damn good right now after re-filling the cupboard the last few years there. You can see their down years directly coincide with the talent erosion. Similar to the Bucs with Gruden.